The Rockford Register Star on Sunday devoted buckets of ink to a story linking poverty with low achievement scores in Rockford-area public schools. As poverty goes up, school performance goes down, the story concluded.

At the same time, taxpayers’ ability to pay more to help the kids who need it most is declining, for the same reason poverty is increasing. And what is that? Too many people are out of work, and Illinois’ dismal tax and regulatory climate, caused by state government’s inability to ward off looming insolvency, makes it difficult to recruit companies to the Land of Lincoln.

Liberals want to provide more money for education and social services by changing Illinois’ income tax from a flat tax to a graduated income tax, where the more you make, the more you send to Uncle Abe. That can happen only if voters pass an amendment to the state constitution, which they are not likely to do.

Meanwhile, the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois has released its yearly fiscal report on state government. The news is not good.

“The report predicts that if the ‘temporary’ income tax increases imposed in 2011 are allowed to sunset to 2015, which is the current law, the structural deficit will increase steadily until it reaches $14 billion in 2025,” said the Decatur Herald & Review in an editorial.

“Even if the current tax rates are extended, the structural deficit would continue and would reach $7 billion by 2025.

The situation will be even worse if the unfunded pension liability issue isn’t resolved. The study, in what it claims to be a much more realistic picture, declares that the structural deficit will grow to $16 billion by 2025 if current spending continues, taxes are reduced as scheduled and some sort of pension reform isn’t enacted,” the editorial said.

I conclude, then, that there won’t be more state money for education because the state refuses to stop spending more than it takes in, and because pensions will consume an ever-increasing portion of the state budget, taking money from today’s and tomorrow’s schoolchildren to pay yesterday’s retired teachers.

So, I’m pretty sure that in the future there will be less, not more, state money for K-12 public education in Illinois. There will also be fewer homeowners and businesses to pay property taxes because Illinoisans are moving to states where the cost of living is lower. So, what to do?

First, rather than bribe companies with multimillion-dollar gifts to stay here, state leaders should reduce or eliminate business taxes to attract job-producing companies to the state. We also need to reform workers compensation and streamline environmental regulations. Let’s become a right-to-work state while we’re at it.

Page 2 of 2 - Second, let’s promote formation of two-parent families. They are the best antidote to poverty. We hesitate to talk about that because it is now politically incorrect to encourage a lifestyle that is the basis of civilization. We cannot exist as a society with anarchy at home and a bankrupt government.

Because we broke the bank, public education will have to live with less money. One big adjustment that won’t cost a thing would be for all teachers and principals to expect the best from their students, despite family or economic status. Don’t use the children’s poverty as an excuse for their low test scores. It’s a cop-out.